Under mounting pressure to set a clear moral tone for the nation, the president instead lashed out defensively, making clear he believes that the participants in a white nationalist and supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., were taking part in a lawful demonstration, and cast aspersions on counterprotesters.

From declining to name who was in the wrong on Saturday to a muted denouncement Monday of neo-Nazis and white supremacists and back to his original comments, Trump reminded everyone: He doesn’t like to be told what to say. And he is preternaturally inclined to dance with the ones who brought him.

The president argued that he initially accused both sides of being at fault because he wasn’t aware of the full facts. But then he defended the aims of the protest and compared George Washington to Robert E. Lee in the process.

The revocation is part of an executive order to streamline the approval process for building infrastructure such as roads, bridges and offices. Environmentalists say it leaves the U.S. more vulnerable to damage from rising seas and oceans.

Of course this bot has not read them all. I was just so struck by the flood of stories, as a news junkie I have never seen such a negative flood against a president before. Never so focused on one man. Not since I started watching news on the internet, like 2004. Even before, I don't remember Watergate like this at all.

It might really be a turning point. I am truly impressed this evening by what seems to be polticial disaster after disaster. It looks like a funky twist on the famous TV commercial: he has fallen and he won't be getting up! I will be quite surprised if rats start don't start deserting this sinking ship even before the Mueller pile on starts. How can he possibly turn the trajectory around? That would be a miracle.

I thought I would post it all because the flood that started here would be hard to reconstruct after a few days. It will either quiet down for a while or get worse, either way, this looks like an important point in time.

Maybe things get real crazy now, like Trump fans start shooting NYT and WaPo reporters, who knows? It just strikes me as an important day, where his craziness hit a crescendo and a symphony started playing.

America loves a bad boy/reformed sinner, and this flood of news is promotion Andy Warhol-style - however bad it is, it's all about Trump - he thrives on that. As many people as it angers, almost as many it thrills. They'll come around. Trump is here to stay, to make our ADHD existence complete. we didn't want boring wonkish policy discussions? Here ya go.

There is indeed political disaster after disaster but politics, as played by politicians as a whole, is just about who gets the high hand on the lever. Our country's recent history is that despite who gets the upper hand they push in the same direction. It is hard to tell one rat from another. Trump is forced to defend his critical middle [his base] and is getting outflanked on both sides. I agree, it is an important time.

Fox News's Kat Timpf slammed President Trump on Tuesday for his "disgusting" press conference in which he again blamed "both sides" for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, stepping back from his direct condemnation of white supremacist groups a day earlier.

"It was one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe it happened," said Timpf, a co-host of “The Fox News Specialists.”

“It is honestly crazy for me to have to comment on this right now because I’m still in the phase where I am wondering if it was actually real life — what I just watched." [....]

Fox News host Shepard Smith said Wednesday that the network tried and failed to get a Republican on-air to defend President Trump's controversial comments on violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend

"Our booking team — and they're good — reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today," Smith said on his show "Shepard Smith Reporting."

"Let's be honest, Republicans don't often really mind coming on Fox News Channel. We couldn't get anyone to come and defend him here because we thought, in balance, someone should do that," he continued.

"We worked very hard at it throughout the day, and we were unsuccessful. And of those who are condemning the president's condemnable actions, I've not heard any prominent leaders, former presidents, members of the House or the Senate use his name while speaking in generalities," he said [....]

Mnuchin is a puzzling case. He happens to be a collector of some very sophisticated art, so it can't be the case where he doesn't get what's going on here. Must be that he has goals that he thinks are more worthy and that it's strategically necessary for those goals not to cause more commotion? I want to make clear that I am not making excuses. Comes to mind, though, that it's traditional for the Treasury Secretary to try very hard not to indicate opinion on political events.

Also Mnuchin doesn't have a highly ideological history, it seems. Contributed to Obama. Maybe just really really likes being treasury secretary. I mean it's way above the aspirations and aptitudes of anyone with his credentials.

Gary D. Cohn, the director of the president’s National Economic Council, who is Jewish, was described by several people close to him as “disgusted” and “deeply upset” by the president’s remarks. But Mr. Cohn has not publicly expressed those views.

Steven Mnuchin, the secretary of the Treasury and also Jewish, stood silently behind Mr. Trump on Tuesday as the president said there were “very fine people on both sides” at the Virginia incident. Mr. Mnuchin has not said anything since about the president’s remarks.

And Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who is also Jewish, has been silent about Mr. Trump’s comments. Ivanka Trump, Mr. Kushner’s wife, who converted to Judaism, said in a tweet on Sunday, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

Requests for comment on Wednesday from Mr. Kushner, Mr. Cohn and Mr. Mnuchin were not answered [....]

The rabbi that oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism has released a letter to the congregation of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s longtime synagogue condemning President Trump’s widely criticized statements about the violent protests in Charlottesville.

In a letter sent to members of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun this evening, Rabbi Emeritus Haskel Lookstein (who oversaw Ivanka’s conversion), along with his successors Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz and Rabbi Elie Weinstock, said, “We are appalled by this resurgence of bigotry and antisemitism, and the renewed vigor of the neo-Nazis, KKK, and alt-right.”

The letter went on: “While we avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in his response to this act of violence.”

Lookstein was close enough to the Trump family that last year he was invited to speak to the Republican National Convention. He initially planned to give an invocation but later dropped out after outcry from the Modern Orthodox community and other groups [....]

So it may very well be that these two Dem-leaning Wall Street types are staying without saying, as someone has to be there with a "globalist" counterpoint.

I should add that I know more than a few people here think of the Goldman Sachs trickle down type people as part of the whole Republican cabal. With lots of Congressional GOP, that may well be true. But in the White House right now we have Bannon rightie Jacobean populism vs. masters of the universe with liberal socio-cultural values. (Not just anti-racism but anti-gun, pro abortion, etc.) Them's your current choices and they don't fit either political party completely.

This is precisely where I see a breakdown of our current two-party ideology. Seriously crossing boundaries, i.e., Bannon's got part of the "eat the rich" thing of some Bernie fans, in addition to the racism. And Dems are painted as elites to many, that Goldman Sachs types and Bloomberg types are simpatico to the Dem party on social issues is further evidence to many. Yes, that Trump is a billionaire, and a shady one at that, is very ironic and where many twains meet. He really does fit independent rather than either party, wacky independent, that is.

And in a world that is no longer there, Cohn and Mnuchin (and like, Bloomberg) would be Rockefeller Republicans. But that's gone. And let's be honest, even back then, Jews did not feel like they could trust WASPy types so much.

Trump is a catalyst in just fueling the flames of breaking the unnaturally attained coalitions in both parties.

But, final point: I think Trump is such a crazy narcissist, and so idiosyncratic because of that, that neither Bannon nor any of us can trust that they have won him over. For example, I'm not at all willing to say his racist leanings aren't genuine now and in the recent past, likely that they probably are genuine, but I think it behooves to keep in mind he showed no sign of sympathy for white suprematicism 17 years ago, almost the opposite. After doing the Central Park Five thing. He bounces around, it seems that even racism is transactional with him. About the only thing that seems to be true across his entire career politically is what Maiello just mentioned on Dr. Cleveland's thread, the propensity to admire dictatorial rough justice for bad hombres. And the hombres are bad as judged by him and him alone. A completely uncontrollable chameleon; no one can trust as to ideology There is none except me me me, my art of the deal talent. This is why so many things he does convulse the country. I mean, really, there are a lot of op-eds out there right now basically saying "Trump administration? There is no Trump administration, just chaos."

“I think the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”

Trump told an interviewer in 1997 that “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true,” but in 1999 accused O’Donnell of having fabricated the quotes.

WaPo managed to get some people to talk about what's been going on with Kelly, it's pretty detailed but what they got is more general change in modus operandi so far rather than any details on what happened Tues:

The uproar over Trump’s equating of white nationalists and counterprotesters underscored the challenges that even a four-star general such as John Kelly faces in instilling order around the president, whose first instinct when cornered is to lash out.

hah, you do the self-deprecatory "sorry, I am a befuddled old guy struggling with technology" thing so subtly and well. Sometimes I think Wolraich might want to kill you, but you then you manage to make him feel guilty for thinking that. I've quietly admired your skill in that!

I don't really have a good PC & internet situation, btw, getting freezes and crashes all the time, frustration and swearing a blue streak, yelling at techies. Currently the worst is major major trouble with incoming cell service for the last month in my home. Talking with other boomers, everyone is handling something similar and big picture, we eventually all think: hey, has this whole increasing productivity thing been a scam to switch us from one kind of useless labor to another kind of useless labor?

Glad you to see you also see the National Lampoon movie factor coming in here! (Which reminds me, are we way way beyond Chevy Chase making a goofball out of Gerald Ford.or what? It's like another planet.)

On Havens, I can't imagine why anyone would think it Greenwich Villagey unless they are judging by the visual of clothing, hair, etc.. The song itself is not just in the classic tradition of great spirituals but even more so in the tradition of meditative chanting. So not really hippy dippy at al.

except if you listen to say Tim Buckley's "I never asked to be your Mountain" from 2 years before, there's a similar vibe, & I think Buckley was definitively Greenwich VIllage - at least for his breakthrough gig, Fillmore East, photos at the time (1966), et al, the rest of his early & later days spent around LA. What to conclude? Idunno - it all floats around, or at least did - no one could wall it off back then.

The full narrative of the C.E.O. rebellion by the NYTimes is fascinating (started with the wimmins! Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo called Mary T. Barra, the head of General Motors, Virginia M. Rometty, the chief of IBM, and then Rich Lesser, the chief executive of Boston Consulting Group). By Tues. 10 pm, most everyone was on board, including Schwarzman of Blackstone, the chairman and Trump's buddy. They were going to wrap the statement up Weds. morning. But Schwarzman felt he should warn Kushner it was going to happen, that they were going to do it, and he did so late Tues. And that's why Trump was able to tweet a "you can't quit, you're fired." There's a lot of context, it's a very interesting read:

Richard and NCD, it's really helpful and gratifying for me to have your appreciation! Though I do my news posting partly just for my own benefit to figure things out, it really makes me feel less guilty about spending so much time on it if I know it's useful to others!

And I just love it when guys like you offer more input and interpretation, it's like smoking crack. No guilt, just other news and history junkies! Thanks back to you and your brains and knowledge for being here! When the skilled get going here interacting on analysis, it beats any stoopid book club for cosmopolitians by a mile!

(Ever think of how we have the equivalent of a "salon" in the 18th or 19th century here? I do.)

We all appreciate the links very much, AA. It's not just articles themselves, which are always worth reading. You've also created spaces for discussing these huge issues and set a tone that has helped us get past the factional bickering that too often consumes us. So thank you!

Many of the military leaders stood up to the commander-in-chief's opinion, and Dems in the House are going to try to start a censure, rmrd posted two stories on that here on a news thread. And there was plenty of other coverage on that which can be found by googling.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) on Sunday ramped up his pressure on President Trump to call white supremacists out by name, saying they should not be a part of any political base.

"White nationalists, white supremacists, they're not a part of anybody's base. They're not a part of this country. They're a part of hatred, they're a part of evil, and we need to stand up to that," Gardner told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" during a discussion of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Whether it's the president of the United States, a senator from any of our great 50 states around the country, or our city councils and school teachers, call it for what it is. It's hatred, it's bigotry. We don't want them in our base, they shouldn't be in a base, they shouldn't be claimed as part of a base, and it has to be made crystal clear," he continued.

"He should use this opportunity today to say this is terrorism, this is domestic terrorism, this is white nationalism and it has to stop, and I encourage the president to do so," he said [....]

It also has his Aug. 12 tweet:

Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW

[....] Last month, Jared Kushner announced the Administration’s support for the bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that the six million Americans in local and federal prisons are included among “the forgotten men and women” that Trump vowed to fight for during his Presidential campaign.. “Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it,” Trump promised. The House passed the bill this week.

President Trump on Thursday canceled a planned summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue nation in a letter explaining his abrupt decision.

“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump said to Kim in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning.

The summit had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

In his letter, Trump held open the possibility that the two leaders could meet at a later date to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which Trump has been pushing.

"President Trump’s unprecedented meeting on Monday with the FBI director and deputy attorney general regarding a case in which he is directly involved may turn out to be the defining moment of his presidency and for his party. Bob Bauer at the Lawfare blog writes:

North Korea is threatening to reconsider Kim Jong Un’s participation in a summit with President Trump next month, saying it is up to the United States to decide whether it wants to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

Stacey Abrams just one the Democratic Gubernatorial race in Georgia by roughly 3:1. She could become the first black and first female Governor of Georgia. It looks like the Republican candidate will be chosen after a runoff election since no one reached 50% of the vote.

Evans argued that Democrats could win by appealing to moderate Republicans. Abrams argued that the party needs to focus on disaffected Democrats. Abrams won. Abrams even won Democrats in northern Georgia with small minority populations.

Kendrick Lamar brought on a white fan onstage to rap along with his song “m.A.A.D. City”. When the fan rapped the song as written, repeating the N-word three times, Lamar halted the performance. He told the fan that she could not use the word. She apologized. He gave her a second chance. She almost rapped the word again, the crowd was not having it. Lamar ushered the fan off stage and continued the performance.

The audience responded negatively to the white fan using the words on stage. She lost the crowd with the first use of the words. Some did point out that she was just rapping the words as written.